Minerva

When a 67 year old woman on a flight bound for Florida developed crushing central chest pain radiating down her left arm, not one but 15 cardiologists leapt to her assistance. They were all en route to a cardiology conference in Orlando. Apart from the fact that she had more cardiologists in attendance than the average patient anywhere in the world, Minerva is curious to know whether they all wanted to follow the same protocol (BBC News Online 2 January 2004).

The UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) updates its guidelines on medical standards of fitness to drive every six months. For easy access to the most up to date “At a glance guide” version, go to http://www.dvla.gov.uk/

A brain imaging study has identified which brain circuits are most active when people consciously try to forget particular memories, revealing a biological basis for Sigmund Freud's concept of repression. Volunteers were taught certain word pairs and then asked to remember or avoid thinking about them. Suppression did indeed impair memory, and the part of the brain most actively involved seemed to be an interaction between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus (Science 2004;303: 232-5).